Bucket construction



Oct. 2, 1962 c. JEFFREY BUCKET CONSTRUCTION Filed May 29, 1961 INVENTOR; CLARENCE L.JEFFREY BY a fl ATTORNEW United States Patent U P 3,056,219 BUCKET CONSTRUCTION Clarence I... Jeffrey, 814 W. Center St., Fairfield, Ill. Filed May 29, 1961, Ser. No. 113,340 2 Claims. (Cl. 37118) The conventional rubber-tired front end loader does not perform satisfactorily for digging or grading solid dirt or earth, because the cutting edge is too far ahead of the front wheels. This is due to the construction of the front end loader, which has both a hoist which moves the bucket up and down, and a pitch control which controls the rotational movement of the bucket. These mechanisms are placed between the front end of the loader and the bucket, and therefore the bucket is out away from the loader by a considerable distance.

The result of this is that the front wheels act as a pivot or fulcrum when the bucket is forced too deeply into the ground. If the operator digs the bucket edge too deeply into the ground and applies power, the following train of events happens: The bucket edge is already too deep in the ground; therefore, pressing the hoist control lever results in attempting to raise the bucket. Since the edge is dug in too deeply, the reaction force on the front wheels causes the tires to flex or spread. This means that the front of the loader drops by several inches (the amount that the tires flex). Further application of power to the drive wheels causes the bucket to go deeper. In some cases, the loader is forced into a stalled position, in which the bucket is forced so far into the dirt, that the flexing of the front wheels and the further application of power, lifts the rear wheels of the loader off the ground.

Another difficulty is that the front edge of the bucket, when it is forced into the ground, merely goes in like a shovel edge. The dirt is not broken up; consequently, the dirt moves to the rear of the bucket in a solid chunk and jams there in the bottom of the bucket. This results in a jammed load. A scraper or a plow, however, has a self-scouring effect. The edge of these tools is at an angle similar to the edge of a wood plane. A plane forces the shaving up and away from the plane board. Thus handled, earth would be broken into clods which cannot jam together in a solid mass.

One of the principal objects of my invention is to provide a bucket construction for a rubber-tired front end loader which will have a cutting edge. This cutting edge will angle down from the bottom of the bucket, as is the cutting edge used on wheeled scrape-rs. This cutting edge will act to break up the earth as it cuts it free from the ground, so that continued cutting with the edge will help to load the previously cut earth into the bucket.

Another object of my invention is to provide a flat bottomed portion on the bucket rearward of the cutting edge, which will serve as a depth gauge in cutting or removing earth.

These and other objects of my invention will appear to those skilled in the art from a consideration of my invention as illustrated in the drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side view of my improved bucket construction, and

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of one of the braces used in my construction, and

FIGURE 3 is a top plan view of the brace and edge portion of my bucket construction which is attached to the bottom of the ordinary bucket, and

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view of the open bucket with the brace and edge portion added.

In FIGURE 1, the ordinary bucket is shown by the numeral I. At the bottom of the bucket is shown a brace 2, consisting of square steel tubing, cut to the shape shown in FIGURE 2 and welded to the bottom of the bucket. To

r 3,0561% Patented Get. 2, 1962 the front portion of the braces 2, is welded a strip of plate steel 3, which is the mounting plate for the replaceable steel cutting edge or blade 4, which is bolted to the mounting plate 3 by means of bolts 5.

The bottom surfaces of the braces 2 are covered by a sheet of steel 6, which is bent on the fold line 7, best illustrated in FIGURE 3.

In FIGURE 2 is shown the trapezoidal brace 2 in perspective view. The fulcrum line 8 corresponds to the fold line 7 of the steel sheet 6, when the braces are fitted with the steel sheet 6.

In operation the improved bucket construction has a number of advantages. In starting to dig, the operator simply lowers the bucket by the use of the bucket hoist control common on all front end loaders. Thus the bucket assumes the position shown in FIGURE 1. In this position the portion of the steel sheet 6 to the rear (or left) of the fulcrum 8 lies fiat against the ground. In this position the cutting edge 4 lies at an angle of between thirty and forty degrees with respect to this horizontal flat position on the ground.

In order to cut, the operator does not, as has formerly been the case, use the hoist control further. With my improvement, the method of cutting is to use the pitch control, common on all front end loaders. The effect of this is to rotate the bucket clockwise around the fulcrum 8. The rear of the bucket rises slightly into the air, and the edge 4 assumes the dotted line position 9 of FIGURE 1. In the dotted line position, the cutting edge is forced downward slightly into the ground. The operator then engages his gears and drives the loader forward. The dirt is scraped away from the ground, or in. another way of expressing it, the dirt is planed away.

This operation of a rubber-tired front end loader is novel. Instead of digging in deeply with the bucket and losing control of the depth, because of immediate flexure of the tires as the weight of the load comes down on the front tires of the loader, the digging is done in long, shallow, evenly controlled movements. The result is a remarkably controllable operation of the loader, which has not been available before.

The fiat portion of the sheet 6 to the left of the fulcrum 8, in FIGURE 1, is used as a gauge of depth. As he begins, the operator can easily lower the bucket with the hoist control, until this portion is on the ground. Then all depth control of the cut is obtained from the pitch control. Of course, if there is an abrupt change of grade, the operator will employ the hoist control.

Since the cutting edge 4 or blade is always forty or more degrees from the horizontal plane of the ground, the dirt which is cut, rides up the front surface of the cutting edge. As further cutting is accomplished this dirt is pushed up and rearward into the bucket. The action is that of planing; the dirt is scraped free off the ground and never grips the front edge, stalling the loader. The dirt thus arches over the cutting edge, impelled rearward into the bucket by the dirt which is next out free of the ground.

An important additional point is that if the cut becomes too deep, a new procedure is employed. It will be re called that present practice is to use the hoist control to break the dirt free when the cut is too deep, and that this causes the tires to receive the load of the bucket; they spread or flex so that the front of the loader drops correspondingly. With my improved construction, the pitch control is used to free the bucket. The bucket is rotated in the opposite sense, that is, in the counterclockwise sense. The bucket rotates around the fulcrum 8 and the weight is put on the flat portion of the sheet 6 at the bottom of the bucket. The weight remains on the bucket, and the reaction force is kept contained to the bucket structure. Thus none of the weight of breaking out is transferred 3 to the front wheels, and the tires are not spread or flexed. he front of the loader does not drop When the. dirt is broken free from the ground; consequently, there is never danger of the rear Wheels of the loader leaving the ground.

With the above procedure it is simple to make efficient use of the front end loader to do grading, digging, and removal of earth. The use of the bottom surface of the bracing as a combination gauge and a fulcrum is particularly effective, both for grading accurately and for breaking out the dirt.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In a bucket for a rubber-tired front end loader, a combination consisting of a plurality of metal braces on the bottom of the bucket, a steel mounting plate projecting beyond the open front edge of the bucket and held in position by the braces, a cutting edge mounted on said mounting plate and projecing beyond the front edge of the bucket at an angle of approximately thirty degrees, and a bottom gauge consisting of a sheet of steel mounted integrally on the lower surface of said braces and rearward of said cutting edge.

2. In a bucket for a rubber-tired front end loader, a combination consisting of a plurality of metal braces in the form of trapezoidal sections of square steel tubing mounted integral with the bottom surface of the bucket, a steel mounting plate projecting beyond the front edge of the open bucket and held in position by the braces, a cutting edge mounted on said mounting plate and projecting beyond the front edge of the bucket at an angle of approximately thirty degrees, and a bottom gauge consisting of a sheet of steel mounted integral with the lowest surfaces of said braces and rearward of said cutting edge said bottom gauge lying in and defining a horizontal plane with the tip of said cutting edge.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Drott et a1. Dec. 7, 1948 2,783,903 Beyerstedt Mar. 5, 1957 

